The Western Canadian Sheep Industry Needs a Good Year

By Harry Siemens

Simon Atkinson of Brandon, MB is the new Manitoba Sheep Association chair. Simon and his father Tony are buying agents for all classes of sheep and goats five miles northwest of Brandon. The company goes under Atkinson Livestock or Tony Atkinson Livestock.

In the industry-wide newsletter SheepSense - March 2023 Simon said there are many questions and concerns from producers, government members and the public over the bankruptcy of Canada Sheep and Lamb/ North American Lamb Co. and the negative impact on the sheep industry.

This company was mainly an integrated processor putting Canadian lamb into Canadian grocery stores however only purchased a small quantity from Canadian producers. Some producers had contracts, but most of the lambs were produced by the company with a portion imported from the United States.

While North American Lamb Company (NALCO) a joint venture between a New portion of the blame for the soft market, in the long term the Innisfail, Alberta plant’s return to processing mostly lamb produced by western Canadian farmers should be a good thing, he said.

Préval Ag from Quebec are the new owners of the Innisfail processing plant with a capacity of 80,000 to 85,000 lambs, now called Westfine Meats Inc., a Canadian farming family business. Préval Ag already has significant lamb processing in Canada and the US along with veal, poultry, beef and vegetables. The company is a well-established player in the North American protein industry and can stabilize the Innisfail processing plant and the Canadian market and industry.

Canadian producers supply only about 40 per cent of the Canadian lamb demand and consumption; the rest comes from other countries.

Simon said that number is relatively stable and the new plant owners in Innisfail while adding long-term stability will not affect it directly. However, a solid processor footing in western pand their flock.

“If we have a reliable plant offering some contracting so you can make a business model going forward rather than just having to sell on the day would also be good,” said Atkinson.

It adds more stability to the market if the new company can assure sheep producers the plant will keep processing and increase capacity.

“And whether we market them into the plant or they market them directly, it should be a good opportunity for our industry,” he said.

Simon and his father Tony plug into the industry by helping the vast majority of the smaller flocks in Manitoba that can never put the numbers together to ship direct.

“That’s where we as dealers come in to make these packages up because a semiload needs 400-plus lambs,” said Atkinson. “So many producers need help putting that kind of number together. That’s where we come in as a dealer to source them from all over, namely Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan.”

Simon is cautiously optimistic about the sheep business in Canada. However, 2022 was a challenging year for producers with that bankruptcy, the market downturn, and the high cost of inputs combined with the damage from inflation over the last few years, resulting in some producers leaving the industry.

“But we’re moving into a new marketing year for the lambs, and hopefully with this new player in Alberta, it should be a better year for everybody,” said Atkinson. “If we don’t have a better year this year, we’ll lose many more producers out of the market because last year wasn’t sustainable for many producers.”